first time blogging in 2010!:)

This week we learned about the moon. We learned that the moon moves slower then the earth rotates.

Rotate means- staying in the same spot, but facing different directions (same position, orientation is changing)

Another vocabulary word we learned about was revolve.

Revolve means-a circular motion around one point.

During class we did this moon simulation lab thing. It asked all these questions about the moon and we would answer them by looking at the moon simulation. We could control what it does and that really helped me understand what the moon does at what speed. I found out that the further away the moon is from the sun, the more illuminated it gets. I also learned that in 29.5 days (which is almost a month) the moon goes fully around the earth. After it goes fully around, it does the same thing again. Another thing i learned is that the moon rotates at the same rate it revolves. The earth rotates counterclockwise. The moon also rotates counterclockwise, only it does that a lot slower.

We learned about the phases of the moon:

-new moon

-waxing crescent

-first quarter

-waxing gibbous

-full moon

-waning gibbous

-third quarter

-waning crescent

after the moon goes through all those phases it starts over and goes through the whole cycle again.

Another thing we talked about was how waves are made

-the waves in the ocean are mostly created because of the moon's pull on the earth. The sun plays a small role on making those waves.

What real world application does this have?

-if you look up at the sky and see the moon you can know what phase it is in. I did some research on this and i found that in ancient times the people would see the moon and know what time of the month they were in. Also if the moon and the sun didn't pull on the earth there would be no waves in the ocean, and that would not be fun!!!

~KATHY~